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The New Hacker's Dictionar
This document is a collection of slang terms used by various subcultures of computer hackers. Though some technical material is included for background and flavor, it is not a technical dictionary; what we describe here is the language hackers use among themselves for fun, social communication, and technical debate.
Kindle Edition
First published September 15, 1991
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About the author
Eric S. Raymond
23 books141 followersEric S. Raymond is an observer-participant anthropologist in the Internet hacker culture. His research has helped explain the decentralized open-source model of software development that has proven so effective in the evolution of the Internet. Mr. Raymond is also a science fiction fan, a musician, an activist for the First and Second Amendments, and a martial artist with a Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do.
--from the author's website
--from the author's website
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
June 25, 2017
It's dated, now, but an interesting reference especially when it was published.
September 10, 2019
Now quaint. A history of the computing mindset through dictionary-style pieces.
December 31, 2019
This is fun reading - and the older the edition the better.
March 15, 2020
Nice, historical reference book
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November 22, 2021One of my favorite reference books ever
August 4, 2022
very fun to flip through, and even more fun to try and work these often archaic terms into conversation
February 1, 2023
This is a fabulous book - a really joyful alphabetical account of the special language of computing. The book is based on that anthropological wonder the Jargon File, a living dictionary of computing and tech language that was maintained by Computer Science students and professors at the big AI and CompSci faculties in the USA in the 1970s and 80s and is still online, although unmaintained.
This lovely 1996 MIT Press edition has detailed, funny and sarcastic glosses from editor (and programmer) Eric Raymond. He takes every definition - even for the most ephemeral of these hyper-niche terms - as seriously as the most pedantic OED lexicographer and there are detailed etymologies and citations.
An earlier edition of this book were a real inspiration to me in the early days of my exploration of computing, cyberculture, the Internet and all that. Like a lot of his generation Raymond turns out to be a bit of a loon - a libertarian and a gun nut, but this book is a work of art and a vital record of the wit and vitality of the communities that together produced the explosion of creativity in post-war computing and then the Internet.
I'm an undiagnosed nerd. If the category even existed in the new town I grew up in in the 1970s I didn't know it and I certainly never connected with any of the other members. The closest I came to a computer in that period was the exotic chatter of the teletype connected to a mainframe at Hatfield Poly that we heard through a locked door in the maths building at school. So I didn't meet a computer for another ten years, at Central London Poly where I was studying photography. So once I'd made my connection with computers it was probably already too late for me to properly internalise that way of thinking (like a musician who starts to learn the cello at 22 and has to acknowledge they'll never be more than competent).
But I began to soak up all the key texts of the computer revolution - the most important to me being Byte Magazine, Ted Nelson's various nutty desiderata and then, over time, the expanding library of O'Reilly textbooks and this book. All brought me an awareness of a complete - if sometimes kind of hermetic - subculture of brilliant, creative, undeferential, anarchic hackers. I've always wished I might actually have joined the gang but, although that wasn't possible (can't code!), I've got so much from their way of thinking and solving problems. This book is a kind of distilled expression of that worldview.
You can still buy the book but it hasn't been updated since this edition, so it's essentially a wonderful fossil - a snapshot of the language of the pre-web IT crowd.
This lovely 1996 MIT Press edition has detailed, funny and sarcastic glosses from editor (and programmer) Eric Raymond. He takes every definition - even for the most ephemeral of these hyper-niche terms - as seriously as the most pedantic OED lexicographer and there are detailed etymologies and citations.
An earlier edition of this book were a real inspiration to me in the early days of my exploration of computing, cyberculture, the Internet and all that. Like a lot of his generation Raymond turns out to be a bit of a loon - a libertarian and a gun nut, but this book is a work of art and a vital record of the wit and vitality of the communities that together produced the explosion of creativity in post-war computing and then the Internet.
I'm an undiagnosed nerd. If the category even existed in the new town I grew up in in the 1970s I didn't know it and I certainly never connected with any of the other members. The closest I came to a computer in that period was the exotic chatter of the teletype connected to a mainframe at Hatfield Poly that we heard through a locked door in the maths building at school. So I didn't meet a computer for another ten years, at Central London Poly where I was studying photography. So once I'd made my connection with computers it was probably already too late for me to properly internalise that way of thinking (like a musician who starts to learn the cello at 22 and has to acknowledge they'll never be more than competent).
But I began to soak up all the key texts of the computer revolution - the most important to me being Byte Magazine, Ted Nelson's various nutty desiderata and then, over time, the expanding library of O'Reilly textbooks and this book. All brought me an awareness of a complete - if sometimes kind of hermetic - subculture of brilliant, creative, undeferential, anarchic hackers. I've always wished I might actually have joined the gang but, although that wasn't possible (can't code!), I've got so much from their way of thinking and solving problems. This book is a kind of distilled expression of that worldview.
You can still buy the book but it hasn't been updated since this edition, so it's essentially a wonderful fossil - a snapshot of the language of the pre-web IT crowd.
August 28, 2008
Although this is technically a dictionary/encyclopedia I have read it cover to cover many times. Intensely interesting, funny and educational. This is the sort of nerd's paradise that we all wish we could find early in life and man am I glad I found this one early. Also includes all the "Crunchly" comics and several extended anecdotes from hacker culture. If you can find it, read it. (Or just get soft-copy of the interweb.)
December 21, 2009
TNHD could definitely use a new edition... There's a lot of out of date info (and unnecessary character-assassination of Kevin Mitnik, in the bibliography) and a lot of current stuff that's in dire need of being added, great sample of the hacker culture right up until '96 though.
January 22, 2008
The words themselves may not be used anymore, but we all need to remember where we come from. Hacker was a badge of honor long before the 1337 shit all over it.
September 11, 2012
Pure geek entertainment a long with some great historical insight. And yes, I did read it cover to cover along with appendixes.
August 23, 2009
Sort of like Ambrose Bierce's "The Devil's Dictionary," but applied to hacker culture. Every entry is full of interesting stuff--an indispensable book.
April 14, 2011
I would urge everyone to read this - especially appendix C!
January 24, 2015
It's the classic, massive Jargon File document in book form! Tons of fun stories from the early, wild west days of IT.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews